THUNDER BAY – Ivy Heatley was raring to go, her eyes laser-focused on the Easter egg prize.
Seconds after officials gave the go-ahead, she raced straight ahead, then slid along the grass Indiana Jones-style, scooping up as many chocolate-kiss-filled plastic eggs that she could get her hands on.
Within a minute, the field outside the Slovak Legion, which was filled with every colour of the rainbow just moments earlier, was emptied of its treasure, to the delight of the hundreds of kids taking part in Friday’s eight-and-older portion of the annual Hill City Kinsmen East End Easter Egg hunt.
Nine-year-old Ivy was beaming, her basket more than half-full.
The plan worked, she said.
“My plan was to just yeet myself onto a pile of eggs and then just start shovelling them into my basket. It worked pretty well,” Ivy said.
“I like coming out here because it’s fun to get prizes, get chocolate. It’s also fun to spend time with family out here.”
Her friend, 10-year-old Ailee Dahlstrom, had an equally fun time.
“I like getting all the fun prizes and the chocolates and stuff, and I like seeing my friends out here. It’s really cool,” Ailee said.
There were smiles all around on Friday, with more than 10,000 eggs delivered to about 2,000 or so children, across four different age groups.
Among the older children was Aubrey Prevost, also 10.
“It’s low-key kind of nice out. It’s chilly, but it’s kind of nice and I want chocolate,” said Aubrey, who missed last year’s event because she was sick.”
She’s happy the Kinsmen and Kinettes, who took over the Easter egg hunt more than a decade ago after threats of cancellation by the previous event organizer, have kept up the tradition.
“It’s really good and it’s fun,” she said.
Summer Danielson, eight, said she wanted to come out to have a great time, even though her sister is in the hospital not feeling well.
She’s a regular at the Easter egg hunt.
“It’s pretty fun,” she said, making at least her third trek to the event.
“I wanted to get as much chocolate because I like chocolate. My Grandma told me to put my knees on the ground and then I’ll get a lot of chocolate in my hands.”
Bert Baxter, president of the Hill City Kinsmen, said the weather cooperated and the turnout was great.
“We’re very pleased,” he said. “There had to be a couple of thousand again. It was great.”
Baxter said it’s important to put on events like the Easter egg hunt.
“Our motto is giving back to the community, serving the community’s greatest needs. This is one of those events that we give back to the community, give back to the children.”
